


Ready For The Storm

by Glinda



Category: Stardust (2007)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-19
Updated: 2011-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:59:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is their Captain and he's not afraid to face the wind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ready For The Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set pre-movie, because Shakespeare was different during the storm and I wanted to explore how he was with his crew when he wasn't playing up to his reputation. Written for the prompt 'Storm' at overlooked.

The first mate of the Caspartine knows that calm in the middle of a storm rarely bodes well. However, he is not averse to allowing the rest of the crew half a minute to catch their collective breaths while they have the chance.

There is lots of bluster and posturing to being a sky pirate. Talking big and fighting harder are important in a world where you’re only as strong, and as safe, as your reputation allows. As far as the outside world is concerned, they mostly live on grog and gruel but no one wants scurvy so every crew has at least one man among them whose ‘way with a knife’ is more suited to the scullery than the skirmish. These days there is money enough for instruments they did not make themselves, but there’s plenty of bawdy drinking songs with complex and tender melodies, even if no one mentions it. They all have their masks and their acts; the Captain’s is merely the most masterful.

It is in the storm that new crewmembers truly learn whether they are cut out to be sky pirates. Any young man can learn to fight half decently, to tame the sails or to master the swagger and the lingo but on deck in the driving rain and biting wind there is little glamour to be found. In the storm there is no escaping that their work is hard and dangerous. Wrestling the lighting into barrels, keeping the nets where they need be in gale force winds; even keeping the ship anything like steady is a constant battle

There are some Captains that don’t get involved in harvests. They like to stand in shelter, shout orders and never last. Not so their Captain, since the first sailing he’d been right there, in among them all, manhandling barrels and lashing down sails. Spotting dangers to the crew before they happen. Shakespeare is a different Captain in a storm than he is during every day sailing. There is something calmer about him, something that inspires confidence in the crew no matter now rough the storm gets. This job is his life, in his bones, whether he chooses to acknowledge it or not. It is here, in his competency and care; rather than in the posturing and violence that have built his reputation that he is most his father’s son. He is a fine captain, keeping his crew safe and sailing, and they follow him with more loyalty than they lavished on his father. Shakespeare is without his father’s cruel streak but they appreciate his performance all the more, for his efforts to keep them safe from those who are. As for the first mate, well, they might never speak of it, but he knows just what the performance costs and some might argue he appreciates it more for the knowing. Their eyes meet for a moment, Shakespeare giving him a wry smile and an appreciative nod and the First Mate knows that however much he would like to lessen his Captain’s burden this is as close to acknowledging it, as they will ever get. The Captain will continue his performance and the First Mate will continue to cover any little slip ups along the way.

The moment passes and in the perfect synchronisation they have evolved over years of working together, Captain and First Mate, turn to the scattered crew and begin shouting orders and stirring them into action. The lull will soon be over and it should not be wasted.

There is electricity in the air, a good sign for a bumper harvest and a warning that this night is far from over.


End file.
